50 Super Bowl Facts

50 Seriously Impressive Super Bowl Facts We Bet You've Forgotten

The very first Super Bowl was held on January 15, 1967, when future Hall of Famer Bart Starr led the Green Bay Packers past the Kansas City Chiefs before a crowd of almost 62,000 in Los Angeles. In the five decades of football since, a lot has changed: the players, the teams, even the rules of the game, but the NFL is more popular than ever and the Super Bowl is still the hottest ticket in town. And the Packers? Well, they’re still pretty good.

So, in honor of this year’s milestone Super Bowl 50 between the NFC Champion Carolina Panthers and AFC Champion Denver Broncos, we took a look back at a half-century’s worth of Super Bowl history. Here’s 50 of our favorite facts from the big game’s past five decades.

The "Super Bowl" Moniker

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Technically, Super Bowl III is the first game to be known as the “Super Bowl.” The two games before it were officially the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, and have only been retroactively dubbed Super Bowl I and II.

Roman Numerals

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Super Bowl 50 should be “Super Bowl L,” but the league decided to temporarily abandon Roman numeral tradition for the big game’s golden anniversary, reasoning a giant L just didn’t look right. But it’s not the first Super Bowl to not go by its Roman numerals: that custom wasn’t started until Super Bowl V, the first championship game following the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The league will return to tradition for Super Bowl LI in Houston in 2017.

Super Bowl Lost Footage

There’s only one known recording of the very first Super Bowl broadcast. And it belongs to a 47-year-old North Carolina man. That’s because neither CBS nor NBC — which both televised the 1967 game, the only time it’s ever been simulcast by competing networks — thought to save a tape of the game. The lone surviving copy is estimated to be worth $1 million, but the NFL has refused to allow its owner to sell the lost piece of sports history to a third party, arguing he only owns the tape, not the footage in it.

Tickets

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The average resale price for a ticket to Super Bowl 50 is well over $5,000, up from last year’s then-record average of $4,271. But back in 1967, the most expensive ticket to Super Bowl I cost a mere $12. Even after adjusting for inflation, that comes out to only $85.16 in today’s dollars. Good luck even finding parking within a 10-mile radius of Levi’s Stadium for that cheap.

Winnings

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New England Patriots’ players each received a record $97,000 for winning Super Bowl XLIX, while the Seattle Seahawks also set a record with a loser’s share of $49,000. Compare that to five decades earlier, when the Super Bowl I winners received $15,000 and the losing team took home $7,500. But turns out, that’s actually more after factoring in 48 years’ worth of inflation: coming out to over $106,4000 and $53,200 in 2015 dollars, respectively.

Age Gaps

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Retirement speculation continues to swirl around Peyton Manning, probably in part due to this next fact: the age difference between this year’s starting quarterbacks — Manning is 39, while Carolina’s Cam Newton is only 26 — is the largest in Super Bowl history. And the second largest? Well, that’d also involve Manning, when the then-37-year-old squared off against the then-25-year-old Russell Wilson back in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Luckiest Player

Anyone will tell you that there’s no such thing as a sure thing. But if you’re looking for the ultimate Super Bowl good luck charm, that honor would have to go to Charles Haley. The Hall of Fame defensive end and five-time Pro Bowler played in five Super Bowls (two with San Francisco and three more with Dallas), and won all five, giving him the all-time record for most Super Bowl wins by a single player, and a ring for each finger. Which is way better than any four-leaf clover.

Unluckiest Player

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And then there’s Gale Gilbert… The former backup quarterback set an NFL record by going to five straight Super Bowls from 1991-1995. So far, so good, right? Except Gilbert lost the first four with Buffalo, changed teams, and… then promptly lost the following year with San Diego. So much for the change of scenery theory. We’re not saying there’s a curse or anything, but neither the Bills nor the Chargers have won — or even made it to a Super Bowl — since

The No-Shows

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Along with the Bills and Chargers, a total of 13 teams have never won the Super Bowl. Including the Carolina Panthers. Before this year, Carolina had appeared in the big game only one other time, back in 2003, when they were beaten by the Patriots, who have played in four more Super Bowls since then, winning twice. Out of that unlucky 13, four of those franchises (former expansion teams the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans, and the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions) still have yet to even appear in a Super Bowl.

Cursed Teams

But the award for true Super Bowl futility would have to go to either the Buffalo Bills or the Minnesota Vikings. Both teams have reached the big game four times, with exactly zero wins to show for it. Of course, in Buffalo’s case, the losses all came in a row, an epic four-year run that made the Bills the answer to the NFL’s most unfortunate trivia question, and made the phrase “Wide right!” into a de facto curse word in upstate New York, even some 25 years later.

Most Super Bowl Losses

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Neither the Bills nor the Vikings hold the mark for most Super Bowls lost, though. That dubious achievement goes to the Denver Broncos, with five. To Denver’s credit, they’ve also won two Super Bowls (in back-to-back years, no less). But another loss this Sunday would further extend a record the Broncos would love to see broken — not to mention give a whole new meaning to “Super Bowl L.”

The Elusive Three-Peat

In its 49-year history, the Super Bowl has never seen a three-peat, a feat that’s been accomplished four times in Major League Baseball and five times in the NBA. Eight teams have won back-to-back championships. The Pittsburgh Steelers have even done it twice: first in ’75-’76 and again in ’79-’80. But no team has ever gone back-to-back-to-back — or, for that matter, even had the chance to win three Super Bowls in a row.

Most Super Bowl Appearances (Team)

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By defeating the defending NFL champion Patriots 20-18 in the AFC Championship Game, the Denver Broncos will move into a four-way tie for most Super Bowl appearances this Sunday. Along with the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers and Patriots, each team will have played in a record eight Super Bowls. Of those four, the Steelers boast the record for most wins, with six.

Most Super Bowl Appearances (Player)

For 16 years, former defensive lineman Mike Lodish held the record for most Super Bowl appearances by a player with six — four with Buffalo and another two with Denver. But as of Super Bowl XLIX, Lodish would no longer be alone at the top, no matter who came out of the AFC Championship Game. That’s because both the Pats’ Tom Brady and Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri were each stuck on five Super Bowl appearances apiece. In the end, Brady ended up being the one to tie Lodish’s record, giving him the most Super Bowl starts of any active player.

Super Bowl Appearances Over Decades

Three former players can say they’ve appeared in Super Bowls in three different decades — and all three are former Oakland Raiders. Hall of Fame left guard Gene Upshaw was the first, playing in the Super Bowl in ’68, ’77, and ’81 (and winning two out of the three). Two decades later, both Jerry Rice and Bill Romanowski joined him in 2003, when the Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII. But of the three, only Upshaw accomplished the feat all with the same team.

Super Bowl Appearances By University

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Ohio State University will be sending five former Buckeyes to the big game this year. And over the course of the Super Bowl’s 50 years, players have come from a total of 393 colleges, both big and small. Of those, the University of Miami, aka “The U,” has sent the most — but only by a hair. 117 former Hurricanes have played in the Super Bowl, compared to 116 USC Trojans. (By comparison, Ohio State has “only” sent 87.)

Coaching Records

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The iconic Super Bowl trophy may be named after legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi, but Patriots mastermind Bill Belichick has still managed to put his stamp on the NFL’s highest honor, going to six Super Bowls as a head coach (a record he shares with Dolphins great Don Shula). Of those six, Belichick also has the most Super Bowl wins, with four (a record he shares with former Steelers coach Chuck Noll). But there is one honor the great Belichick doesn’t have to share: out of all those Hall of Famers, no one else can rock a grey hoodie quite like Bill.

Player/Coach Victories

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Only Mike Ditka, Tom Flores, and Tony Dungy have won Super Bowls as both a player and a coach, but if the Panthers win on Sunday, Carolina head coach Ron Rivera (who won his ring playing for Ditka) would become the fourth former player to join the club. If the Broncos win, however, former Broncos great John Elway will land on an even more exclusive list: he’d become the first to win a Super Bowl as both a player and a GM.

The "Never Miss A Super Bowl" Club

All told, 3,747,914 total people have attended Super Bowls I through XLIX. And of those nearly four million fans, only three have never missed a single game. The “Never Miss a Super Bowl Club,” as they’ve been so imaginatively dubbed, once boasted five members, but is currently down to just Steelers fan Thomas Henschel, 49ers fan Larry Jacobson and Patriots fan Don Crisma. All three Super-fans plan on attending this Sunday, making it an even 50 and continuing the Super Bowl’s longest-running tradition.

Largest Crowd

The largest single crowd in Super Bowl history occurred in 1980, when the Steelers and the then-L.A. Rams packed a record 103,985 fans into the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. (For comparisons’ sake, Levi’s Stadium, the site of this year’s Super Bowl, can hold up to 75,000.) As for the smallest crowd? That’d be Super Bowl I’s 61, 946. And you can’t blame the stadium for that. At the time, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum had a maximum capacity of 100,000. Maybe the word just hadn’t gotten out yet.

115 Million Viewers

Broadcast globally in 34 languages, last year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched ever, drawing in 114.5 million viewers. But just to be clear, those record numbers don’t just make XLIX the most-watched Super Bowl in football history, they make it the most-watched telecast in TV history. Period.

Super Bowl Commercials

It’s common knowledge that Super Bowl commercials are exorbitantly expensive, especially with that many eyeballs up for grabs. Last year, a 30-second spot cost $4.5 million. This year, it’s $5 million. While that same ad time cost a mere $42,000 back during Super Bowl I. But if you’re looking for the most expensive Super Bowl commercial ever made, that dubious honor goes to Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” spot from 2011. The two-minute long ad featured Eminem driving around his hometown in a brand-new Chrysler 200 and cost $12.4 million, or well over $100 thousand per second.

The Voice Of The Big Game

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Which network gets the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl rotates every year, but after working a record 18 games, no matter who was airing it, legendary announcer Pat Summerall deserves to be known as the “voice of the Big Game.” The late, great broadcaster did it all, starting as a sideline reporter in Super Bowl I, before graduating to play-by-play and color commentating, and even pitching in on the radio broadcast side twice. And as Summerall’s counterpart on the dial, Jack Buck was an equally prolific play-by-play man, calling the game an impressive 17 times for CBS Radio — and once more on TV.

Half-Time Shows

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Technically, the Grambling State University Marching Band has performed at the most Super Bowl halftime shows. But if we’re just counting pop acts, Latin superstar Gloria Estefan holds the record as the only one to perform three times. Bruno Mars and Beyoncé will each make their second appearance during Super Bowl 50, and both Nelly and Justin Timberlake have performed twice as well. Although it’s probably safe to say that the NFL isn’t planning on bringing Timberlake back for a three-peat after what happened the last time…

National Anthem

Singing the national anthem in front of a crowd of thousands is no easy task (just ask Roseanne). And in 49 years, Billy Joel and Aaron Neville are the only two artists to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl more than once. Neil Diamond holds the record for the shortest anthem performance at 62 seconds before Super Bowl XXI. As for the longest rendition? That’d go to Alicia Keys, who clocked in at a marathon 156.4 seconds in 2013.

Longest Return

Keys’ epic anthem wasn’t the only impressive feat of lung capacity shown off during Super Bowl XLVII, although it only took Baltimore Ravens kick returner Jacoby Jones a mere 12 seconds to set his record. Jones’ 108-yard kickoff return to open the second half against the 49ers remains the longest play in Super Bowl history, and officially turned out the lights on San Francisco’s Super Bowl hopes well before that infamous third quarter blackout.

Longest Game

Thanks to a 34-minute delay while Superdome staff dealt with that stadium-wide blackout, Super Bowl XLVII officially ranks as the longest game in Super Bowl history at 4 hours, 14 minutes. And while New Orleans has hosted the NFL’s biggest game a record 10 times, after 2013, it may be a few more years before they get to #11.

Kickoff/Punt Returns For A TD

Including Jones’ record-setting run back, there have been a total of 10 kickoffs returned for a touchdown in Super Bowl history, but even after 49 years, there’s still never been a punt return for a score. There have been three blocked punts returned for a touchdown, however. But if history does finally happen at Super Bowl 50, the smart money’s on Ted Ginn. The Panthers speedster has four punt return TDs in his career.

Overtime

There have been 32 overtime games in NFL playoff history (six of which went into double-OT), and 20 more in the 2015 regular season alone, but to date, no Super Bowl has ever gone into overtime. It has come close though: four out of the last five Super Bowls have come down to the last play.

Game-Winning Field Goals

Feel free to go ahead and blame Adam Vinatieri’s right foot for the lack of Super Bowl OT action. There have been only three game-winning field goals in 49 Super Bowls, and “Mr. Clutch” has two of them, both with the Patriots, the first coming with nothing but zeroes on the clock as New England upset the St. Louis Rams in XXXVI. But in spite of Vinatieri’s heroics, no kicker has ever won Super Bowl MVP.

The 10-Point Margin Of Error

Here’s something to keep in mind this Sunday, in case one team manages to open up a big lead: no Super Bowl team has ever come back from being down by more than 10 points to win. And only last year’s Patriots made their comeback run after being down by 10 in the fourth quarter. Sorry to bring up bad memories, Seattle fans.

Close Games & Blowouts

Even though it purports to pit the best in the AFC versus the best in the NFC, not every Super Bowl has been a close game. And it’s the Denver Broncos who were on the wrong side of history’s biggest blowout, losing to the 49ers by an insurmountable 45 points in Super Bowl XXIV. San Francisco’s 55 points remain the most ever scored by a single team, but that’s not even the worst part of the lopsided victory: even though they didn’t know it yet, the game was already over for the Broncos by the end of the first quarter after the Niners outscored Denver 13-3.

The One-Point Gap

Still, it’s hard to say if that loss was any more crushing than Buffalo’s in Super Bowl XXV. In 1991, the Bills lost to the New York Giants by the Super Bowl’s smallest margin of victory – a single point, and making matters worse, the Bills had been favored to win by 7. To this date, XXV is the only Super Bowl that’s been decided by one point, the game ultimately swinging on Scott Norwood’s infamous missed field goal.

The Near-Shut Out

For all the blowouts and gut wrenching loses, no team has ever been shutout in 49 Super Bowls. But the ’71 Dolphins came close in Super Bowl VI thanks to a 24-3 drubbing by the Cowboys. They’re still the only team in Super Bowl history to fail to score a touchdown.

The (Nearly) Perfect Season

Those same Dolphins were on the verge of returning the favor the very next year in Super Bowl VII, holding the Washington Redskins scoreless for a record 57 minutes and 53 seconds. Yes, you read that right: Washington didn’t manage to get off the schneid until there was only a little over two minutes left in the game. And to do so, they had to return a fumble for a touchdown off a blocked field goal attempt — preventing the ’72 Dolphins from capping a perfect 17-0 season with a 17-0 victory (and becoming even more insufferable than they already are). Some things are just too perfect.

Fastest Score

On the flip side, the Seattle Seahawks became the fastest team to score in Super Bowl history when a botched snap forced Peyton Manning and the Broncos into a safety a mere 12 seconds into the start of Super Bowl XLVIII. And someone, somewhere, presumably earned thousands when the most unlikely, improbable Super Bowl prop bet of all-time actually paid out.

Most Touchdown Returns By A Player

When it comes to special teams, no player has more return touchdowns than Devin Hester. So no one was too surprised to see the four-time All-Pro take one to the house when the Bears played the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI. What was surprising was that it happened on the opening kickoff, with Hester going 92 yards in 14 seconds for a Super Bowl first. Which meant if you got to your couch late in 2007, you’d already missed history.

Offense vs Defense

Defense wins championships (Part 1): For only the second time in Super Bowl history, the #1 scoring offense will play the #1 total defense, pitting the Panthers’ 31.3 PPG against the Broncos’ 283.1 YPG. The last time that happened, in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Broncos were on the other side of the equation, with their #1 offense going up against the Seahawks’ #1 D.

Seahawk Defensive Records

Defense wins championships (Part 2): Only one team in Super Bowl history has ever scored off a safety, an interception returned for a touchdown, and a kickoff returned for a touchdown in the same game. That’d be the Seattle Seahawks and their #1 D, when they beat the Broncos’ top offense 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII.

Most Super Bowl MVPs

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Joe Montana and Tom Brady are the only players to have won the Super Bowl MVP three times. Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw and Eli Manning have each won it twice. And it’s no surprise the MVP leaderboard is quarterback-heavy — the award has gone to the winning QB 27 times in 49 years. The next closest position is running backs, with seven.

Defensive MVP

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Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley made Super Bowl history in 1971, becoming the first defensive player (and non-quarterback) to ever win the Super Bowl MVP award. But that wasn’t even the most notable part of Howley’s MVP win: he played for the losing team. Despite two interceptions and a fumble recovery by Howley, Dallas still lost to the Baltimore Colts on a last-second field goal, in what was one of the sloppiest Super Bowls ever played. Howley and the Cowboys would return to the Super Bowl and win it the following year, but the linebacker couldn’t repeat his MVP performance — it went to Dallas QB Roger Staubach.

Co-MVPs

The Cowboys also boast another MVP oddity, with the only pair of co-MVPs in Super Bowl history: in Super Bowl XII, the award was shared between defensive end Harvey Martin and defensive tackle Randy White. The two linemates were the leaders of a Dallas defense that forced eight turnovers and limited the Broncos to only eight completions and 156 total yards in a 27-10 win.

Dallas MVPs

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The Steelers may have the most Super Bowl wins with six. But thanks to Howley, Martin and White, the Cowboys can say they’re the only NFL team with seven Super Bowl MVPs, even though the franchise only has five rings.

Kick Returner MVP

Counting Dallas’ co-MVPs, a total of nine defensive players have won the big game’s highest honor. But there’s only been one kick returner to take home MVP honors: Desmond Howard, who racked up a record-tying 244 total return yards for the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI, including a then-record 99-yard kickoff return TD that essentially iced the game against the Patriots.

Least Valuable Player

If the Super Bowl ever decided to hand out an award for Least Valuable Player, it probably would have gone to Rich Gannon in 2003. The Raiders quarterback owns the record for most career Super Bowl interceptions thrown, with five. But here’s the worst part: all those picks came in the same game, with three of them returned for touchdowns. Gannon threw for 272 yards to his own receivers, and 172 to the other team in a 48-21 loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs, after having been named the league MVP that very same year.

Disney World!

Giants quarterback Phil Simms is credited with being the first player to shout “I’m going to Disney World!” after winning the Super Bowl and being named the XXI MVP, starting a tradition that carries on to this day. It also wouldn’t be the last time the future broadcaster would be heard blurting out asinine phrases during a football telecast, a trend that’s also continued well into 2016.

Super Bowl Rings

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The very first Super Bowl ring, given to Packers players some 49 years ago, contained a single diamond. The following year, the diamond count was upped to three, and things only multiplied from there. By 2015, the Patriots’ Super Bowl XLIX rings contained a record 205 diamonds, almost doubling the number in the franchise’s ’03 and ’04 championship rings. The price tag for one of these bejeweled behemoths? $36,500 apiece. Who says guys can’t get excited about diamonds too?

Longest Field Goal

The longest field goal in Super Bowl history is a 54-yarder from Bills kicker Steve Christie, but to be honest, that’s not a very exciting stat. So how about a Super Bowl record that can never be broken? That’d be the shortest field goal ever: 9 yards. The feat was accomplished was twice, by the Jets’ Jim Turner in Super Bowl III and Dallas’ Mike Clark in VI. And it’ll never happen again, since it became physically impossible to kick anything less than a 17-yarder once NFL goal posts were moved to the back of the end zone in 1974. So go ahead and write Turner and Clark’s names into the record book in ink.

Most Super Bowl Records

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But most importantly, we wanted to find out which player holds the record for most Super Bowl records. And it turns out, that (totally made-up) honor goes to none other than Jerry Rice. The Hall of Fame wide receiver and all-time great rewrote the Super Bowl record books on his way to three rings, retiring with the most receptions, receiving yards, touchdowns, 100-yard games, total points scored and total yards gained, along with a whole host of other single game records. Although it should probably come as no surprise that one of the greatest players in NFL history is also one of the greatest players in Super Bowl history, right?